Dateline 18^th August 2019

 FT Chonburi Sharks 2 NRFC 1

Attendance; 5507

The Sharks began brightly with debutant keeper Chainarong saving smartly after 30 seconds. Minutes later Kroekrit shot agonizingly inches wide with an angled drive. At the other end, Henri got onto the end of an Amadou lob but was thwarted by the home keeper.

With Chonburi looking more refined and the visitors resorting to the Neanderthal tactic of lumping the ball forward for Henri to chase, the contrast in tactics was embarrassing at times.

In the 12^th minute Caion broke forward and forced the visitor’s keeper into a fine save. The Sharks continued to press and in the 25^th minute a viciously deflected shot from Sarahat Sontisawat eluded the keeper and crept into the net to put the Sharks one up.

Minutes later and rather unexpectedly, the Swatcats equalized when Amadou skillfully slid the ball into the net from 8 yards and as the first half whistle blew, the visitors could consider themselves lucky to be on level terms.

After a brief period of decent attacking play as the second half commenced, the visitors faded as the 

home attack, with Caion prominent, began to tear the Swatcat defence apart with thrusts from both flanks. The combative Caion had two headed chances before the inevitable happened in the 64^th minute when Caion struck home after the Swatcat defence failed to clear.

With the Swatcats attack bereft of ideas, this strike looked like the winner and as the match stuttered to a conclusion, the visitors limped to yet another disappointing loss.

In what has become common recently, a toothless, mediocre performance with the team resorting to lumping the ball forward for our inept forwards to chase. There was no pattern, no crisp passing movements and a distinct lack of quality on display.

My early season optimism has quickly evaporated as it has transpired that coach Joksic is presiding over a very average team.

The team is now deep in relegation territory and quite honestly with Port, Buriram and Samut Prakan to come, I cannot see where our next points are going to come from. The team needs a fresh approach but unfortunately, I fear that even a big change within the coaching staff will save us from the dreaded drop.

Match Day 24 Stats